Searching for the Favorable Donor Site for Fat Injection: In Vivo Study Using the Nude Mice Model

BACKGROUND: The use of suctioned fat grafts for correction of soft tissue defects is a widespread procedure in esthetic and reconstructive surgery. The main disadvantage of this simple and sensible procedure is the unpredictable absorption rate of the fat graft. A lot of research has been performed aiming for enhancement of the take of the fat grafts. OBJECTIVE: Our study was performed to find if there is any favorable donor site for fat harvesting. METHODS: This in vivo experiment using the nude mice model enables the study of the long-term survival of human fat in an animal model. The fat was harvested from three donor areas: the thigh, abdomen, and breast of a 48-year-old woman who came for an elective esthetic procedure. After centrifugation, 1 cc of fat was injected subcutaneously into the scalp of the nude mouse. There were 15 mice in each of the three groups, according to the selected donor sites. The animals were sacrificed 16 weeks after the procedure. The extracted fat was evaluated in terms of weight, volume, and six histologic parameters: integrity, vascularization, cyst formation, fibrosis, necrosis, and inflammation. RESULTS: This study could not find any statistically significant differences between the three investigated donor sites in the evaluated parameters. CONCLUSION: On the basis of this study, there is no favorable area for harvesting fat grafts. The donor site can be chosen according to the preference of the surgeon and the patient.     

Deep Phenol Peeling and Fat Injection: Treatment Option for Perioral Wrinkles in a Scleroderma Patient

Background Scleroderma is characterized by abnormal growth of connective tissue, often manifested with hard and tight skin. The viscous properties of the skin are impaired, and the main histologic changes include a thicker dermis, absence of pilosebaceous units, and a decreased space between collagen bundles. Often these patients have wound healing problems.
Objective The objective was to demonstrate a case of scleroderma that had deep phenol perioral peeling and fat injection into the lips. According to our bibliographic search, this is the first report in the English literature of using these modalities in scleroderma patients.
Methods A 64-year-old woman suffering from scleroderma for more than 20 years came for improvement of her perioral appearance. We decided to manage her deep perioral wrinkles by deep peeling using the Baker formula and concomitantly to use autologous fat injection to augment her thin lips.
Results The healing of our patient after these two interventions was uneventful, and satisfactory results have been obtained.
Conclusion Based on our experience, this intervention may be suggested for patients suffering from scleroderma after a detailed explanation of the possible wound healing difficulties is provided to the patients.     

Interaction of Klebsiella capsule type 7 with human polymorphonuclear leucocytes.

Klebsiella serotype K7 is found among the capsule types that are most prevalent in respiratory tract isolates. To evaluate the significance of the K7 antigen in bacteria-leucocyte interactions, K7-encapsulated Klebsiella pneumoniae strains and their non-capsulate mutants were investigated. The K7 isolates were compared to K2-capsulate strains and their respective K- derivatives. K7-capsulate bacteria were less hydrophilic, and more readily phagocytosed and killed by human polymorphonuclear leucocytes (PMNL) than K2 strains. Loss of the K7 antigen resulted in increased surface hydrophobicity but did not affect phagocytosis and killing, whereas loss of the K2 capsule caused greater susceptibility to the phagocytic and killing action of PMNL. Both the K7 and K2 antigen stimulated the extracellular release of lysozyme from neutrophils but not of myeloperoxidase, indicating degranulation of only secondary granules. All K- mutants induced the release of both lysozyme and myeloperoxidase. Our results suggest that, in contrast to the K2 antigen, the K7 capsular polysaccharide does not confer antiphagocytic properties on bacteria. However, the K7 antigen is able to impede the extracellular release of primary granule enzymes.     

Frequent ongoing T-cell receptor rearrangements in childhood B- precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia: implications for monitoring minimal residual disease

Crosslineage T-cell receptor delta (TCR delta) rearrangements are widely used as tumor markers for the follow up of minimal residual disease in childhood B-precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The major drawback of this approach is the risk of false-negative results due to clonal evolution. We investigated the stability of V delta 2D delta 3 rearrangements in a group of 56 childhood B-precursor ALL patients by PCR and Southern blot analysis. At the PCR level, V delta 2D delta 3-to-J alpha rearranged subclones (one pathway for secondary TCR delta recombination) were demonstrated in 85.2% of V delta 2D delta 3-positive patients tested, which showed that small subclones are present in the large majority of patients despite apparently monoclonal TCR delta Southern blot patterns. Sequence analysis of V delta 2D delta 3J alpha rearrangements showed a biased J alpha gene usage, with HAPO5 and J alpha F in 26 of 32 and 6 of 32 clones, respectively. Comparison of V delta 2D delta 3 rearrangement status between diagnosis and first relapse showed differences in seven of eight patients studied. In contrast, from first relapse onward, no clonal changes were observed in six patients studied. To investigate the occurrence of crosslineage TCR delta rearrangements in normal B and T cells, fluorescence-activated cell sorter-sorted peripheral blood CD19+/CD3- and CD19-/CD3+ cell populations from three healthy donors were analyzed. V delta 2D delta 3 rearrangements were detected at low frequencies in both B and T cells, which suggests that V delta 2-to-D delta 3 joining also occurs during normal B-cell differentiation. A model for crosslineage TCR delta rearrangements in B-precursor ALL is deduced that explains the observed clonal changes between diagnosis and relapse and is compatible with multistep leukemogenesis of B-precursor ALL.     

The position of pulmonary carcinoids within the spectrum of neuroendocrine tumors of the lung and other tissues

Bronchopulmonary carcinoids comprise 25% of all human carcinoids. The World Health Organization divides them into typical (TC) and atypical forms (ATC), distinguished by differences in mitotic counts lower or higher than 2/2 mm(2) and the presence or absence of necrosis. The reproducibility of this classification with respect to the borderline cases with 1-2 mitotic counts/2 mm(2) has been questioned. We have analyzed 15 TCs and 20 ATCs by comparative genomic hybridization. Loss of 11q was the most frequent aberration in ATC (55%), but was observed only twice in TC (13%). Deletions of 3p were seen only in ATC (25%). Meta-analysis of our data and data from 218 neuroendocrine tumors and 50 non-small-cell lung carcinomas obtained from the literature revealed differences between carcinoids and carcinomas. For example, loss of 5q is frequent in lung carcinomas (75%) but is rarely seen in carcinoids (1.4%). Deletions of 11q are less frequent in neuroendocrine lung carcinomas than in ATC. To obtain a more objective survey of the relationship of pulmonary carcinoids to other neuroendocrine tumors and lung carcinomas, we created a hierarchical clustering dendrogram. This statistical approach resulted in a clear separation of carcinoids and carcinomas, which both built up different clusters. In summary, this study demonstrates the benefit of chromosomal analysis supplementary to the diagnosis of bronchopulmonary carcinoids. We also identified the feasibility of hierarchical clustering to get some clues on relationship between different tumor types. This study further argues against a transition of ATC to high-grade neuroendocrine lung carcinoma.     

Births of normal daughters after MicroSort sperm separation and intrauterine insemination, in-vitro fertilization, or intracytoplasmic sperm injection

The world's first deliveries of normal babies after use of flow cytometric separated human sperm cells (MicroSort) for preconception gender selection are reported. Offspring were of the desired female gender in 92.9% of the pregnancies. Most of these pregnancies and births were achieved after simple intrauterine insemination.      

Evaluation of three commercially available hepatitis C virus antibody detection assays under the conditions of a clinical virology laboratory.

BACKGROUND: Most studies evaluating antibody detection assays are conducted on samples from healthy blood donors but not on samples of hospitalized patients which can show non-specific reactions. OBJECTIVES: To compare the performance of three commercial automated assays for the detection of hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibodies, Monolisa anti-HCV Plus version 2, Axsym anti-HCV 3.0 and Vitros anti-HCV, on a population of hospitalized patients. STUDY DESIGN: The specificity of the assays was prospectively evaluated in 2020 routine serum samples. In order to assign the serostatus of each sample, those giving positive or discordant results were further tested by three immunoblots and by RT-PCR (Roche). Moreover, the sensitivity was evaluated on eight commercial HCV seroconversion panels. RESULTS: The Monolisa, Axsym and Vitros assays showed specificities of 99.64%, 99.12% and 99.33%, respectively. Concerning the sensitivity, among 49 samples, the number of positive results was 21, 24 and 24 for the Monolisa, Axsym and Vitros kits, respectively. The differences were not statistically significant at an alpha risk of 5%. CONCLUSIONS: All assays appeared to be reliable for routine screening, but there were a surprising number of indeterminate samples that could not be resolved by confirmatory tests.